PVC Cages and heating?

[BlueTongueDragon]

I've been wanting to get some PVC caging for my skinks but I have no idea where to start.
As of now I have 2, 75 gallon tanks on a bakers rack and I really don't like the look of it.
With a 3rd bluey in my future I really wanna find something stackible that takes up less space.
I'm really interested in Animal Plastics. http://www.animalplastics.com/
The 48x24x15 seems ideal but how do you got about heating cages like this?
Any reviews or suggestions?

[kenn]

I have plastic cages myself. But they are more giant terrariums... Herptek.
You could use heat pannels with thermostat?

[Coomassie]

I use high impact polystyrene enclosures and they are awesome! We get them from this guy: http://pmherps.com/ and he also sells heat mats for them. Basically you just have to buy heat mats that are rated for plastic. We went with these because they are really light and durable. They are also the only stackable enclosures on the market that you don't have to sell a kidney on the black market for.

[StaceyLeigh]

I use high impact polystyrene enclosures and they are awesome! We get them from this guy: http://pmherps.com/ and he also sells heat mats for them. Basically you just have to buy heat mats that are rated for plastic. We went with these because they are really light and durable. They are also the only stackable enclosures on the market that you don't have to sell a kidney on the black market for.

These look very interesting. How do you put lighting in? How much is shipping? I have been looking for larger housing for all 3 of mine, and you are right most are crazy expensive!

[Fatal_S]

I simply installed a flood light in my PVC tanks. My tanks are 16 inches high, and the ceramic fixture + light come down about halfway. One cheap 65W bulb is enough to keep the tank toasty warm. It's a super easy setup I have a thread about setting up the tanks somewhere on the forum: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=21894

Other, more complicated options, include heat mats/radiant heat panels for heat, and florescent light or rope lights for lighting.

[Kurt]

Other, more complicated options, include heat mats/radiant heat panels for heat, and florescent light or rope lights for lighting.

Does anyone use heat mats/flex watt tape or radiant heat panels as the main source of heat? That might throw off basking? It might be easier to use some flex watt tape in a rack system for someone with many skinks... I wonder how well that works?

[Jeff]

Flexwatt does what it is intended to do extremely well. The issue is if you think bottom heating is ok or not. Flexwatt will heat the floor of some types of enclosures very well. It will not provide overhead heating well though. Some people think overhead heating is preferable to bottom heating for BTS, so Flexwatt is not a good option for them. I use Flexwatt in all of my racks and really like it. I use overhead heating in all of my other enclosures though, so Flexwatt doesn't work for that.

I have never seen any negative affects from either type of heatiing.

[Kurt]

Jeff, thank you for that insight. Eventually I'd like to have a few breeding groups of blueys but I don't know that I'll ever have enough room for them to all be in enclosures. A rack system seems like a must...

Maybe something like this?
http://www.arscaging.com/ars8507.html

[Jeff]

Those are excellent. I build my own though because I have a design that works very well, and costs me about $120 for a rack with 6 tubs. I would prefer to have the rack you linked, but the price is fairly prohibitive for me right now. Some day in the future I may be able to afford a number of "store bought" racks, but right now my home made jobs are working very well.